Development of a computer package for the calculation of direct coal liquefaction process economics

摘要

AbstractProcess flowsheeting evaluations and parallel economic assessment studies can provide a cost‐effective means of guiding research and development effort into advanced coal utilization processes such as direct liquefaction. Developments in the capabilities of personal computers have meant that studies on complex processes can now be carried out without recourse to expensive mainframe computing facilities. Of particular value to research into coal utilization processes is software which enables process and economic studies to be carried out interactively on personal computing equipment. The work which has been undertaken by the British Coal Corporation under the present contract was directed at providing a software system which was able to fulfil this requirement, with reference to the evaluation of direct liquefaction process performance and overall economics.A computer software system has been developed under the name of ACCESS, an acronym for ‘a coal conversion economics simulation system’. The paper describes the completed software system and illustrates it